Lee, I much prefer for recessed areas whether chromed or not to use Tamiya's Panel Line accent color wash. It comes in Black, Dark Brown, Brown, and Gray. Honestly, the Gray doesn't seem to work unless really mixed with Black. The wash is enamel based not lacquer or acrylic lacquer so a Mineral Spirit is used to remove the excess and won't harm acrylic or water based paints.

For grilles I use acryllics, thinned with water or enamels thinned with white spirit. Any excess paint is easily removed, with a brush or cottonswap dampened with thinner.In my latest build I used Tamiya smoke, thinned with alcohol. That worked fine on alu-wheels. Haven't tried it on a grill.

I like to use black acrylic thinned with Future. It flows great into grilles. If any of the wash get on top surfaces I didn't want, I just wipe away with an isopropyl dampened brush, cotton tip, or tissue.